Research And Development Of Orthodontic Treatment Accelerator That Can Obtain The Natural Frequency Of Tooth

The oral health, as an issue closely related to people’s life, causes more and more attention and concern. Demand for treatment of oral problems is also increasing. Orthodontic treatment may result in solid tooth loss, root resorption, and other side effects. Besides, these side effects are related to treatment time. So acceleration of orthodontic tooth movement thus shortening the treatment duration is an effective solution to reduce the side effects.Applying a vibration of certain frequencies and intensities on the tooth can accelerate tooth movement, thus shorten orthodontic treatment duration. This method is easy to implement, and not invasive for oral tissue. The optimal frequency is related to the natural frequency. And measuring the natural frequency of the tooth is an important prerequisite to study the correlation. This paper developed an orthodontic treatment accelerator which could apply vibration load to different teeth, and the frequency and amplitude of vibration load could be adjusted independently and steplessly. In addition, this paper studied how to measure the natural frequency of the tooth, which was integrated to the orthodontic treatment accelerator. When measuring the natural frequency of the tooth, the natural frequency would be obtained via acquisition and analysis of the sound signals generated by tapping the tooth.The orthodontic treatment accelerator consisted of mechanical system and control system, and the control system consisted of hardware design and software design. The mechanical system achieved the function that the frequency and amplitude of vibration load could be adjusted independently and steplessly. In order to ensure the reliability of the design, dynamics analysis and fatigue analysis were finished in the design process. The hardware design included a smallest system, a motor drive module, a sensor module, a display module and a power module. Functions and working principles of every circuit were described in detail. The software design based on the interrupt control principle. It completed the control, measurement and display of the vibration frequency. Furthermore, the processing methods of the sound signals were also studied, and Fast Fourier Transform was selected to acquire the natural frequency of the tooth.Finally, this paper did the experiment using the prototype of orthodontic treatment accelerator. It could operate normally after startup. There was a screen that could display real-time vibration frequency and other information. The frequency and amplitude of vibration load could be adjusted ste plessly. The orthodontic treatment accelerator was also used to measure the natural frequency of the maxillary central incisor. The experimental results were compared with the finite element simulation results, which indicated that the experimental results were accuracy and reliable.